What The Collector’s Appearance in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Could Lead To

With the three live-action core characters of Guardians of the Galaxy reportedly locked down, and hints that the voice actors may have already been chosen to fill out the rest of the roster, Marvel Studios and director James Gunn are beginning to build the supporting cast.

Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana and Dave Bautista will be joined by Michael Rooker as the first four names attached to Marvel’s “Cosmic Avengers” feature and now they’re joined by another important female character.

THR has the scoop that British actress Ophelia Lovibond (Mr. Popper’s Penguins, Titanic: Blood and Steel) has joined the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy. She will reportedly play a character who “aides” The Collector, therefore confirming two additional characters we can expect to see in Marvel’s most cosmic movie to date.

The Collector is a rather important being in the Marvel Comics universe, and one of the oldest. His real name is Taneleer Tivan and he’s the last surviving member of his species, one of the first intelligent races formed after the creation of the universe. That fact made him worthy enough to be granted immortality from “Death” – the character for which Thanos (see: The Avengers) aims to serve and impress.

Tivan/The Collector has a limited ability to see the future, specifically the ability to see threats that can destroy the galaxy before they occur. His hobby, a purpose he gave himself billions of years ago to keep sane, is therefore to protect the universe in his own odd way and he has the name “The Collector” because he literally collects special artifacts and beings from around the universe and houses them in museums (large ships and planets) with the goal of re-seeding the universe and sharing his knowledge should it be annihilated.

How does this tie-in with Marvel Cinematic Universe? The first being that The Collector prophesized about was Thanos, the biggest, baddest villain we’ve seen in the films so far, and a character expected to show up in Guardians of the Galaxy and The Avengers 2. In the books, Tivan also tried to “collect” The Avengers on numerous occasions, even capturing Thor and Wasp.

So, if Ophelia Lovibond is to play someone who “aides” The Collector, she’s likely playing his daughter, Carina Walters. This is where it gets very geeky and slightly confusing. Carina’s mom (The Collector’s wife) died eons ago – despite being immortal – because she lost the will to live. This is what led to The Collector becoming who he is with a new sense of purpose (collecting). The potential for The Collector and Carina being in the film would have even greater implications, since it opens the door to another villainous possibility for the future of the film franchise: Korvac.

Where Thanos was the first threat The Collector foresaw, Michael Korvac was the second. Korvac was born a thousand years into the future, around the time when the original Guardians of the Galaxy formed around the events of the Badoon aliens conquering the galaxy (more on that here and here). Essentially, Korvac is angry and rather evil, so he betrayed humanity to help the Badoon. Through events we won’t get into, Korvac travels back in time to present day to fight Doctor Strange (movie incoming!) and others. There’s a big fight, Korvac tries to blow up our solar system, Thor and the Guardians are involved, etc. Korvac loses and escapes to another dimension and timeline (ours).

The heroes of the universe managed to defeat Thanos the first time around without The Collector getting involved, but for the battle against Korvac, The Collector sent his daughter Carina to earth to directly intervene. That’s another complicated story that involves Carina and Korvac falling in love, but for the sake of talking about the film universe, let’s just say Carina may have lot to do with The Avengers and specifically, the Wasp character, and if young actress Lovibond is playing Carina, then it’s very possible that Korvac could be an eventual villain, whether that be in an Avengers film, a Thor film or a Guardians of the Galaxy film.

There are so many possibilities for what direction Guardians of the Galaxy could take in its first outing, with so many different combinations of characters and story arcs, that it could set up countless combinations of plans for future Avengers and character films. Needless to say, Marvel President Kevin Feige has no shortage of material to have his team(s) work from in shaping the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The fun part is figuring out who and what makes the cut. The current rumor is that the main villain of Guardians is Thanos’ henchman.

Iron Man 3 releases May 3, 2013, Thor: The Dark World on November 8, 2013, Captain America: The Winter Soldier on April 4, 2014, Guardians of the Galaxy on August 1, 2014, The Avengers 2 on May 1, 2015, Ant-Man on November 6, 2015, and Doctor Strange sometime after that.